Hockey card number 136 in the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee and Topps sets seems pretty generic. The man on the front is Gilles Meloche, long time goaltender for the Minnesota North Stars. The O-Pee-Chee card is valued at $1.50 while the Topps card is rated as a simple common card. However, the picture on the front tells a story. And no, the story isn’t that two 5’8″ men can become stars in the National Hockey League. Then again, maybe it is.
On the front of card number 136, Meloche is skating around the ice, probably during the pre-game warmup and chatting with a member of the Washington Capitals. That Washington player is Dennis Maruk. The significance? The two had just recently endured three years of hard time with the California Seals / Cleveland Barons circus act of a franchise. Chances are, not many minutes after the photo was taken, Maruk may have put one past his old teammate.
Meloche and Maruk played together for the 1975-76 season with the California Seals, the last year for the franchise on the west coast before moving to Cleveland. Meloche was already a veteran of disappointment in the Bay Area, having backstopped the Golden Seals / Seals since the 1971-72 season. For Maruk, it was his rookie year in the NHL after a stellar junior career with the London Knights.
Both played the entire two year NHL history of the Cleveland Barons, enduring every single painful day in hopes that the franchise would fold soon. When all the Cleveland players became property of the Minnesota North Stars for the 1978-79 season, both Gilles and Dennis started the season with the club. However, after just two games, Maruk was shipped to the Capitals. To prove Minnesota wrong, Dennis put in a 90 point season over the remaining 76 games.
For two more years, 1983-84 and 1984-85, the two were teammates once more. Maruk was shipped back to the North Stars and finished out his NHL career in Minnesota. Meloche was off to the Pittsburgh Penguins after the 1984-85 season, where he finished out his career.
The lowdown on these two excellent and under-acknowledged players:
Gilles Meloche was originally a fifth round pick of the Chicago Black Hawks at the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft, 70th overall. He played just two games with Chicago in 1970-71 before being moved to California. Gilles played in the NHL from 1970-71 to 1987-88 with the Seals, Barons, North Stars and Penguins. He has been the goaltending coach with Pittsburgh since the 2007-08 season.
Dennis Maruk is the greatest player never honoured by the London Knights and a definite honourable mention for the Hockey Hall of Fame. Maruk was a second round pick of the Golden Seals at the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft, 21st overall. He played in the NHL from 1975-76 to 1987-88 with the Seals, Barons, North Stars and Capitals.
Maruk’s claim to fame is the 1981-82 season with the Washington Capitals. He scored 60 goals and assisted on 76 for 136 points. The 76 assists and 136 points remain as Washington Capitals team records. The 60 goals was a record broken by Alex Ovechkin in 2007-08 when O.V. scored 65.